Then Comes Living
When trying to find the right path to follow over the course of one's life, the common signifiers of success or happiness won't do you much good. Most of life's recognized accomplishments are empty, they signify little to nothing. What one really gained was in those brief moments of inspiration, passion, or will that emerged in the process leading to that "accomplishment" if you gained anything at all.
The first step I found to real purpose in life is a resignation of purpose. Hang up your notions of duty, responsibility, love, pride, honor, self-image, self-respect, success, achievement. These things are not to be found in life, following them leads you no where. And if you do find them it will be by accident and will be more of a burden than gift in the long run.
The second step is finding the will to live, to live with life as its purpose. I realized that I wake up every morning to have a cup of tea, or a cup of coffee. That is why I live. We live to taste, to breathe. To burden one's conscience and will with much more than that is to ask for disaster. Find whatever works for you, whether you are looking forward to your next chapter of a book, your next cigarette, your next walk, your next fuck, your next plane ride, whatever you like so long as its reasonably available. Don't hold on to even this purpose too tightly. Life will take everything from you. If you're going to live you may as well live for what you can loose.
Then comes living. And its in the acceptance that we just have to live as we are, where we are, with whom we are, that life starts to take shape. You cannot be better than yourself, you cannot be more than yourself, you cannot last more than your body will last. Radical acceptance of yourself and your reality is where you begin. The dreams, interests, experiences, resources, people, places around you then loose their subjective trappings and come into focus. You can interact with them as someone who values them as you value your own life. Not in reference to some scheme or arbitrary system but as you find them, in their plain, beautiful complexity.